Hannah

Interaction Between Birds and a Fake Bird

Introduction

I chose this question because I wanted to do an experiment on bird behavior. I had been noticing that around the bird feeder the birds were not very social. I wanted to see how they would react in the presence of a fake bird. Would they know it was fake? Would they be afraid? I don't know. That's why I'm going to conduct this experiment.

This is the kind of birdseed I am using

This is my birdfeeder

This is the fake bird I am using

Bird feeder with fake bird

Question:

How will different species of birds react in the presence of a fake bird?

Research Summary

Research Before Fake Bird:
From my observations I found that many birds liked to eat alone at the bird feeder. These birds included: the Carolina Chickadee, the House Wren, and the American Goldfinch. They liked to come alone so that they could get more birdseed and didn't have to fight over it with the other birds. The smaller birds seemed a bit more timid and afraid. Especially of the big birds. One kind of bird that particularly interested me was the House Sparrow. I saw a House Sparrow yesterday, come to my bird feeder, grab some food, and fly away to go eat it in a tree. The bigger birds like cardinals and Blue Jays like to eat together. The cardinals usually come together as a family to the bird feeder and enjoy their meal together. I feel like the smaller birds that I listed above, might be sort of frightened by the bigger birds.

Here is a list of some of the birds that I commonly see feeding on my bird feeder at home. I have also listed their behaviors and some other interesting facts about them.

Cardinal: The male Northern Cardinal is quite territorial. If other males come near the territory it will fight them off. Northern Cardinals are very pretty. They do not migrate and can even be seen in the winter. Usually when at the bird feeder the cardinals eat together as a family. Cardinals do not molt.

Carolina Chickadee: The Carolina Chickadee is a very intelligent bird. These birds are curious, chatty, and acrobatic. What I have noticed about chickadees is that they usually go alone to the bird feeder and take their time to get enough food. They do not strike me as the kind of bird that would really like to eat with other birds around. The chickadees seem a little shy.

Carolina Wren: The Carolina Wren is a very shy bird. It scoots up and down tree trunks looking for bugs or fruit. Carolina Wrens defend their territory by constantly singing; they also very aggressively scold and fend off their intruders. I have noticed, at the bird feeder that the Carolina Wren is often very skittish and doesn’t stay long to eat. Especially in the presence of other birds. The Carolina Wren is the state bird of South Carolina.

House Finch: House Finches have very small bodies and fairly large beaks. The finches are very fond of company. When not feeding on the feeders they can be seen eating bird seed up the ground, or up trees looking for food.

American Goldfinch: This little bird is the state bird of New Jersey, Iowa, and Washington. It is commonly seen around sunflowers and clinging to weeds and grass. This bird is active and acrobatic and a very beautiful bird. Its bright yellow always catches my eye. It's a real treat for me to see the American Goldfinch at the bird feeder. It comes swooping in and you can see that beautiful yellow sitting there, feasting on the bird seed.

Eastern Bluebird: These birds are so pretty. They have a royal blue back and an orange belly with a little bit of white around their feet. The eastern bluebird is often seen perching on telephone wires, posts, and low branches. It enjoys eating fruit, berries, and insects. Whenever I see it at my feeder it usually stays for some time. It doesn’t strike me as particularly shy and doesn’t fly away in the presence of other birds.

Hypothesis

I think that most of the birds will get scared of the other “bird” and fly away because it is bigger and also, I don't consider birds in general very social. I think that there will be certain types of birds that won’t be as afraid. But I think that after a few weeks the birds will realize that the bird is stuffed. I think if the fake bird looks similar to a certain species of bird, then that specific kind of species won’t be as afraid of the fake bird because they will think it is a real bird of their kind.

Variables

An independent variable is the variable in your experiment that you can change. In my experiment, my independent variable is the fake bird. First I will see what it’s like without the fake bird present, then I will see what it’s like with it present. A dependent variable is a variable that depends on the independent variable. My dependent variable is the birds and how the birds will react. I want to see if there is any difference in behavior from the birds, when the fake bid is present, and when it is not.

Methods and Materials

Materials:

1 package of spicy, squirrel resistant bird seed.

1 pair of binoculars to observe birds very closely with

1 bird feeder

1 list of different kinds of bird reactions (created by me)

Some green string to hang bird up with

1 stuffed bird

About 2-3 weeks of time for the experiment

Methods:
At first, I will study the bird behaviors without the fake bird for about one week, to see how they react. I will make a data sheet and fill it out checking all the boxes of different behaviors that I saw from different species of birds. A week later, I will hang up the fake bird. I will then, observe how the birds react to the fake bird and fill out my data sheet. If it rains and I have to take the fake bird down to avoid it getting wet, I will record that too. I will record the weather and species of bird. The fake bird will stay up for 1-2 weeks. The extra week would mainly be to see if the birds realize that the bird is fake and if they react any differently.

The Tufted Titmouse was one of the more popular birds at the feeder. It didn't seem to be as afraid of the fake bird as other birds were.

Results and Data
Here are some tables that I made to show the difference in behavior with the fake bird and without it. Here are my observations of Before: 1 week of observation and After: 1 week of observation so far.

Before Fake Bird:

Behavior	Type of Bird	Number of Times Behavior Witnessed
Eats alone at feeder and takes its time	Carolina Chickadee, American Goldfinch and a few other small birds	5 times
Comes to feeder, sees other birds fly away	Carolina Chickadee, Carolina Wren	3 times
Eats seeds off of ground	Northern Cardinal	1 time
Takes food, flies away, and eats it in a tree	Eastern Bluebird	2 times

Before Fake Bird: Before the fake bird, the birds were very social. Sometimes, you would see up to 4 at the feeder at once. They were chirping and interacting and eating lots of the birdseed.

With Fake Bird: Week One

Behavior	Type of Bird	Number of Times Behavior Witnessed
Observes the fake bird from a tree and sometimes comes down for a bite to eat	Tufted Titmouse	3 times
Avoiding the bird feeder	All birds except the Carolina Wren, Tufted Titmouse, and the Carolina Chickadee	many times
Bird lingers at feeder	Carolina Chickadee	2 times
Seen observing fake bird from high up in a tree. Doesn’t come down to eat	Carolina Wren	1 time
Rain	No birds involved	It has rained twice during my experiment

Week One Summary: I noticed that once the fake bird was up, the amount of birds coming to the feeder lessened. The birds that dared come close either observed from afar or flew skittishly towards the feeder and had a quick bite to eat.

With Fake Bird: Week Two

Behavior	Type of Bird	Number of Times Behavior Witnessed
Rain. It has rained literally all week long.	Next to no birds this week	I haven’t seen hardly any birds this week

Week Two Summary: During week two it rained a lot so there were almost no birds.

With Fake Bird: Week Three

Behavior	Type of Bird	Number of Times Behavior Witnessed
A brave little bird flies over to the feeder for a quick bite to eat.	Tufted Titmouse	1 time
No birds	none	many times I saw no birds

Week Three Summary: This week, I rarely saw any birds. The weather was fairly nice. It only rained two out of the seven days in that week. I have noticed that it seems like the Tufted Titmouse is the only kind of bird that doesn’t seem to be afraid of the fake bird. I was surprised at the lack of birds this week. I would have thought that by now they would have realized that the bird was fake and be less afraid of it.

Discussion:
My experiment went pretty much how I would have liked it to go. If I wanted to do a follow up experiment, I could maybe change the type of fake bird and see if that made a difference or see if the birds reacted differently to another kind of animal. I don’t think I would change anything about my experiment but I think it would be cool to do some of the follow up experiments that I listed above. My hypothesis was supported except for the part where I thought that the birds would realized that the fake bird was fake. They ended up not realizing it was fake and still thought it was a real bird. I thought that the birds would be scared of the fake bird and they were. After 3 weeks of doing my experiment and barely see any birds anymore. Hopefully they will come back once I am done with my bird experiment.

Bibliography

"American Goldfinch." , Life History, All About Birds. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
"American Goldfinch with Chicks." N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
"Carolina Chickadee." , Life History, All About Birds. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
"Carolina Wren." , Life History, All About Birds. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
"Cornell Lab of Ornithology Home Page." Birds. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
"Eastern Bluebird." , Life History, All About Birds. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
"Eastern Bluebirds." N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
Herd, Tim. "The Lively Black-Capped Chickadee." Copley News Service. N.p., jan. 1, 2007. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
"House Finch." , Life History, All About Birds. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
"Northern Cardinal, Female." N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
"Life History, All About Birds." N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
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